Volleyball – World Championship: France dominates Japan and joins the quarters (25-17, 21-25, 26-24, 22-25, 18-16)

The French volleyball team went through all the emotions during this round of 16 of the World Cup, but they ended up winning in five sets (25-17, 21-25, 26-24, 22- 25, 18-16) against a team from Japan that upset the Olympic champions. After a well-crafted first set, the France team suffered against attacks from Ran Takashi (11 points), Yuji Nishida (31 points) and Yuki Ishikawa (22 points). Jostled from the start of the fifth set, the Blues had one foot on the edge of the precipice when Japan got a match point, but the experience of the Habs paid off. Thanks to the success of Nicolas Le Goff and Earvin Ngapeth on the last points of the meeting, France has validated its ticket for the quarter-finals of this 2022 Volleyball World Cup where it will face Italy on Wednesday.

Faced with a clearly inferior opponent on paper, the France team was the big favorite in this confrontation against Japan and Andrea Giani’s players confirmed their status in a masterfully won first set. Earvin Ngapeth (7 points), Barthélémy Chinenyeze (6 points) and Jean Patry (5 points) were imperial at the net against the Japanese who were much too dependent on the flashes of Yuji Nishida (25-17).

But from the start of the second set, the France team gave the impression of being overwhelmed, with laborious decisions in defense. Returning to the score (10-12), the Habs began to let the points slip away after a service into the net from Jean Patry. The following ? A series of unscrewed attacks, bad choices in defense and Japan ended up taking off and winning this set on a pipe attack from Ran Takashi (21-25).

In the following rounds, it was the players usually on the bench who managed to make the difference. As against Cameroon, it was Stephen Boyer who put the French team back on the right track when Japan began to take over the Habs. It was thanks to two successful attacks by the sharp Frenchman that the Tricolores took a two-point lead (22-20) in the third set, a lead that the French consolidated until winning the round (26-24 ).

Decisive replacements

Trévor Clévenot replaced Kévin Tillie, who was injured in the third set, and the Habs had a rocky game. He was the weak point of the French team in the fourth set, being the favorite target of the Japanese who took advantage of the slump of the French Olympic champion to attack him excessively. But it was he who allowed France to stay alive in the tie-break after a catastrophic start (1-4). After a furious smash, it was against the Frenchman that the French team regained the advantage (7-6).

If Barthélémy Chinenyeze believed for a long time that his victorious counter would allow France to have a sufficient gap to win this match (11-9), the Japanese managed to come back to score and get a match point (14-15) . The Blues ended up getting away with a flash of genius from Ngapeth who found the perfect angle, diagonally, to offer victory to the French.

The Blues will face Italy, this Wednesday, September 7, in Ljubljana. A year after their Olympic title, the French team will have to get rid of the reigning European champions if they want to pursue their dream of becoming world champions for the first time in their history.